Know your Author: Dr Ruparanganda

The book Genitals are Assets? was developed from part of Doctorate thesis and talks of the life of children living on the streets and their sexual relationships while the book “Children with Adult Hearts” was expanded and developed from his Masters thesis on child headed homes in Highfield.
Born in January 1959 in the Chitsa area of Gutu at Chinyika Clinic, Dr Ruparanganda was the last born in a family of seven; three boys and four girls.

His mother Selina Muchineripi was a housewife, and his father also by the name Watch first used to do menial jobs in places like Bulawayo and Mvuma.
The name Rupanganda was a nickname given to his grandfather who was always getting himself into trou­ble and it meant lightning.
“This is how my father and a few other mem­bers of the family came to use the surname while everybody else uses Muchineripi,” said Ruparanganda.

Dr Ruparanganda attended Machingambi Primary in Gutu were he excelled in his studies. He was one of the first primary school pupils to ever board a plane after his school’s Young Farmers Club came second in a public speaking competition.
“Every school had a Young Farmers Club and our school team which consisted of myself as the chairman, Evangelista Matongora as the treasurer and Stanley

Zirobwa as the secretary won the competition, the then Minister of Agriculture gave us an opportunity to board a plane as part of the prize for coming second.
“Up to now some people from Gutu still refer to me as ‘mukomana wekukwira ndege’.
“It was an experience of a lifetime. At the end of primary education I was the only one in a class of 40 to achieve a Division One pass,” he said.

From Machingambi he went to Sanyati Baptist Mis­sion School for his secondary education where he also passed his O-Level studies with a Division one, a standard that was considered difficult to achieve at that time.
In 1978 he went to Mkoba Teachers College for his primary teacher training course, a profession he had carefully chosen as it was noble and it paid well.

After completing the course he went to Bumburwi Primary School, Gweru, and taught for two terms before he and other teachers with their classes were selected to go to Mkoba 14 and start a new school called Mkoba 4. He went with his Grade Seven class, which included the likes of Jonah Mungoshi, the motivational speaker and management consultancy expert.

After five years as a teacher he joined the University of Zimbabwe studying for an Honours Degree in Sociology. He finished the degree in 1988 as the best student in his class with a University Book prize.
He later became a teaching assistant in the Department of Sociology at the same university. In 1990 he joined the Ministry of Labour as a labour relation officer before moving to National Breweries where he worked as a personnel and training officer until 1992.

That same year he moved to Zimbabwe Sun hotels in the same position.
He then did consultancy work for a human resources organisation before he joined Speciss College as an Administrator. From there he went to Safeguard Security in August 1995 where he worked as a Manpower Development Manager.

Dr Ruparanganda left Safeguard Security to start his own security training company before tracking back to the University of Zimbabwe in 2002 to read for a Masters Degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology. He completed the programme in 2003.
His dissertation thesis for his Masters was on child headed households of Highfield, looking at their livelihood and challenges and the thesis was expanded and developed into a book titled, Children with Adult Hearts.

During those studies he started working as assistant lecturer at the University where he proceeded to study for his PhD and his thesis was titled, the Tragedy of Procrastinating, which was a case study of the sexual behaviour patterns of street youth in the era of the HIV and Aids pandemic.
This is the thesis that was developed into a book titled, Genitals are Assets? A book which talks of the life lived on the streets.

“When I wrote the book I was looking at the life on the streets and how their sexual escapades can reward them as they have relationships with people in the mainstream society.

“We all look at these street children and laugh at them calling them names in the afternoon but in the evening they are the ones who will satisfy the needs of people of a well up social standing,” Dr Ruparanganda added.

He said the book also touches on so many aspects of street life including the language which in most cases is not really understood by many people outside that world.

The book, “Children with Adult Hearts,” is a case study of the life lived by children who would have been orphaned and the challenges they face as they try to take care of themselves and their siblings and it focuses on the town of Highfield.
Dr Ruparanganda says the inspiration to write came from the time he was a security guard at Safeguard where one of the company’s social responsibility programmes was to help orphans and vulnerable children, some of whom were staying at Mbuya Nehanda Children’s Home in Melfort.

Dr Ruparanganda is married to Shamiso and they have five children, two sons and three daughters. Two of the daughters are married and he has six grandchildren.